Happy Thursday!

I’ve got some exciting news! my short film plAy Date is an official selection for the City of Angels Women’s Film Festival. This is such an incredible honor. I’m soooooooooooooo happy! Yippie!

My short film selected is called plAy Date. I know it looks like a typo except I set it up to look like play date and A DATE based on the script’s subject matter: A serial killer kidnaps a police detective and flirts with her. Here’s my trailer plAy Date

Janet Carter and Alvin Washington are my two actors. And they both brought so much with them. But I’ll give you a hint that I knew that going into my shoot. See – I combed through around 400 actresses to find Janet. It’s hard in Los Angeles to narrow it given the number of talented actresses here. But I loved the array of facial expressions that Janet conveyed in her reel. This was important based on how I was going to shoot the short. I knew that she may be my top choice. And then we had a great talk during our audition. The combination helped me to know that she was the one.

As for Alvin, I knew from working with him on my short film called promises. And I had also went through a whole bunch of actors to find him for that original role. He was incredibly prepared and brought a wonderful range for both of these projects. My gut had told me that Alvin was the one during the casting of that short. Our combo of chatting and audition also confirmed that he was the one for that. And I knew he was the one for this. My gut just told me.

I also loved how Janet and Alvin played off each other. They both give it their all even though you could argue that “it’s just a short.” Here’s the thing about shorts though… They’re an opportunity to make mistakes and try things out. I had wanted to see what it would look like to shoot this short in the style that I did. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of moving forward with other projects.

It should also be noted that both actors are available to work in the Los Angeles area.

I’m also thinking about how much dialogue to include or not include. How much should I let it move my story? I know that this is a case by case basis. Here’s the thing though: I’m better off writing fewer and more dynamic lines than a bunch of throwaway ones that confuse my audience. The writing term is an “exposition dump.” You may know this is in the regular terms of “digging yourself into a hole…” You when you think explaining helps clarify your point except it muddles it more. This leads you to more explaining and more explaining until you all have forgotten the original point and go for a beer instead.. Just kidding. It’s really about using words like a shovel except the dirt falls in a lot faster than you can shovel. And then there’s the fact that you may not be just shoving dirt if you catch my drift.

Okay… I just did an exposition dump. That means it’s time to go! Have a wonderful night! It’d be cool if you could make it! Here’s the schedule: City of Angels Women’s Film Festival Official Schedule As it’s such a dynamic festival, I suggest attending it and submitting to it next year.

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